Philippine Mayor Wants Rebels Punished for Attack

The mayor of the southern Philippine city under a deadly attack for the second week by rebels said she wants prosecutions and punishment, unlike in past incidents where rebels were sometimes given freedom in exchange for curtailing violence.

European Pressphoto Agency

Filipino evacuees line up for food on Sept. 18 at a football stadium turned into an evacuation center not far from the site of renewed clashes now in their second week in the southern Philippines.

Zamboanga City Mayor Isabelle Climaco said by prosecution, “justice will be gained for those whose lives were wasted in this atrocity. Let the perpetrators go to jail and never be allowed to come back to our city.”

In 2001, 300 members of the Moro National Liberation Front–the same group that attacked the southern Philippine city last week–raided a military camp in Zamboanga City, killed soldiers and held civilians hostages in Cabatangan, a village in the same city. Eventually, the rebels were granted safe conduct pass and not prosecuted as part of an agreement to end the conflict.

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“I want a long-term solution for this problem. I cannot allow the repeat of any of this nor the repeat of the 2001 Cabatangan experience,” said Mayor Climaco, whose political career started after the first National Front attack, when she was elected the first woman vice mayor of the city.

The 47-year-old politician was elected mayor last May as a member of President Benigno Aquino III‘s Liberal Party.

The latest standoff, on its 10th day Wednesday, has claimed more than 100 lives–mostly rebels — displaced more than 100,000 residents, many of whom are now living in government evacuation centers, and damaged properties and the economy.

While an end to the fighting remains uncertain, security forces are increasingly becoming more confident that they are on the last leg of the campaign to capture the remainder of around 200 heavily armed National Front rebels.

The rebels entered the city last week with plans to hoist their flag to declare Zamboanga City’s independence from the Philippines. Security forces prevented the rebels from reaching City Hall and contained them in a handful of villages.

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas III said that, although the rebels are now cordoned in two villages with a total two hectares (five acres) in size, he can’t predict when the struggle will be over.

But he said life in the southern trading center whose production of canned sardines is the biggest in the country is starting to return to normal, with more businesses starting to reopen and traffic starting to build up in some areas.

The Zamboanga City International Airport, shuttered since the attacked started on Sept. 9, will start accommodating flights, albeit on a limited basis, starting Thursday. Aviation authorities are watching the security situation before ordering full operations at one of the busier airports in the Mindanao, a resource-rich region in southern Philippines who growth has been hobbled by decades-old separatist movement.

“Our city many not right away get back to normalcy, but we are trying to make steps to begin the work for people to get back on their toes,” Mayor Climaco said. She said many volunteers are coming to the city, offering help everycway they can.

Schools will remain closed until Friday but executives from both government and private offices in areas far from the conflict arena are urged to resume work.

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